Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Dept. of
Special Collections

Stockton, California 95211

Abstract: The Muir Papers consists of John Muir's
correspondence, journals, manuscripts, notebooks, drawings, and photographs. It
also includes some Muir family papers, the William and Maymie Kimes collection
of Muir's published writings, the Sierra Club Papers (1896-1913 ), materials
collected and generated by his biographers William Badè and Linnie Marsh Wolf,
and John Muir's clippings files and memorabilia.

Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as
the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the
researcher.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], John Muir Papers, Mss48, Holt-Atherton
Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Copyright
1984 Muir-Hanna Trust.

Biography / Administrative History

A Scottish-born journalist and naturalist, John Muir (1838-1914) studied
botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin (1861-1863). He worked for
awhile as a mill hand at the Trout Broom Factory in Meaford, Canada
(1864-1866), then at an Indianapolis carriage factory (1866-1867), until an
accident temporarily blinded him and directed his thoughts toward full-time
nature study. Striking out on foot for South America, Muir walked to the Gulf
of Mexico (September 1867-January 1868), but a long illness in Florida led him
to change his plans and turn his interests westward. Muir arrived by ship at
San Francisco (March 1868), walked to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and began a
five year wilderness sojourn (1868-1873) during which he made his year-round
home in the Yosemite Valley. Working as a sheepherder and lumberman when he
needed money for supplies, Muir investigated the length and breadth of the
Sierra range, focusing most of his attention on glaciation and its impact on
mountain topography. He began to publish newspaper articles about what he saw
in the California mountains and these articles brought him to the attention of
such intellectuals as Asa Gray and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom sought him
out during their visits to California. Encouraged by Jeanne Carr, wife of his
one-time botany professor, Ezra S. Carr, Muir took up nature writing as a
profession (1872). He set up winter headquarters in Oakland and began a pattern
of spring and summer mountaineering followed by winter writing based upon his
travel journals that he held to until 1880. His treks took him to Mount Shasta
(1874, 1875 & 1877), the Great Basin (1876, 1877, 1878), southern
California and the Coast Range (1877), and southern Alaska (1879). Muir found
that he could finance his modest bachelor lifestyle with revenue from
contributions published in various San Francisco newspapers and magazines.
During this period he launched the first lobbying effort to to protect Sierra
forests from wasteful lumbering practices (1876).

In 1880 he married Louisa Strentzel, daughter of a prominent physician
and horticulturist in Martinez, Calif. Quickly learning the fruit business,
Muir soon found himself caught up in the full-time management of his
father-in-law's orchard properties. Two daughters (Annie Wanda, b. 1881 and
Helen Lillian, b. 1886) added to his domestic responsibilities. His writing
diminished during this decade, with only one lengthy project completed (
Picturesque California, 1888).

Prompted by the
persistent urging of Robert Underwood Johnson, an editor of
Century Magazine, and freed from many business
obligations by his father-in-law's death and the subsequent sale of much of
Strentzel's property by Louisa Strentzel Muir, John Muir launched a major
writing and lobbying campaign that culminated in the creation of Yosemite,
Sequoia and General Grant (Kings Canyon) National Parks (1890). He also helped
found the Sierra Club (1892) and used its collective influence to protect the
boundaries of Yosemite (1895) from lumber interests. During the 1890s Muir
again began to travel, visiting Alaska, 1890; Europe, 1893; Arizona &
Oregon, 1896; Canada & Alaska, 1897, 1899; the Midwest and New England,
1898) and also published his first important book,
The
Mountains of California
(1894).

During Muir's final fourteen
years, he was hounded by a variety of family difficulties and political
failures that probably hastened his death. Louisa, Muir's wife, died in 1905.
In the same year his younger daughter, Helen, contracted tuberculosis and Muir
shepherded the young woman to various spas ultimately settling her in Daggett
in the Mojave Desert (1905). Meanwhile, the naturalist found himself at odds
with "utilitarian" conservationists like Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford
Pinchot, who were less interested in the preservation of wilderness than in the
controlled 'harvesting' of forest resources. Pinchot also favored conversion of
the Hetch Hetchy Valley to a reservoir for the city of San Francisco, an idea
which ultimately became a reality despite Muir's dogged opposition (1908-1913).
Still, John Muir found time and energy both for travel and for writing. In 1903
he ushered President Theodore Roosevelt through Yosemite, then shortly
afterward took a year's voyage around the world (1903-1904). In 1906 Muir spent
much time with daughter Helen in Arizona, the following year he summered in the
Hetch Hetchy with California painter, William Keith and in 1909 visited the
Grand Canyon and the Colorado River with John Burroughs and E.H. Harriman. His
most extended trip during these years was a six month tour of South America and
Africa (1911-1912). Muir somehow found time during the same years to publish
Stickeen (1908),
My First
Summer in the Sierra
(1910) and
The
Yosemite
(1912).

Scope and Content of Collection

The Muir Papers are arranged in seven series. Series I consists of John
Muir's correspondence and related papers (1856-1914). Series 2 contains Muir's
journals and sketchbooks (1867-1913). Series 3 consists of Muir's notebooks
(1856-1912), working notes (1864-1914) and manuscripts of Muir's published
writings. Series 4 contains Muir's sketches and photograph collection. Series 5
consists of Muir Family papers, Sierra Club Papers (1896-1913), as well as
materials relating to Muir collected and generated by his biographers William
Badè and Linnie Marsh Wolfe. Series 6 contains John Muir's clippings files.
Series 7 consists of Muir memorabilia, including maps, calling cards,
brochures, pamphlets and other like materials collected by Muir during his
travels.

An index to the correspondence in the Muir Papers can be found in
The Guide and Index to the Microform Edition of the John
Muir Papers 1858-1957
edited by Ronald H. Limbaugh and Kirsten E. Lewis,
1986.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.

3.4.34.01951: Adventures of three Naturalists in search
of a Breakfast or A peep into a Crawford Co. Mail Bag, 1864 [poem] (see letter
from John Muir to Emily Pelton 1864 Feb 27 - Mar 1, in Series 1: Correspondence
and Related Documents)

3.4.34.01953: In Search of a Breakfast: Dedicated to the
"Patron of all those luckless brains, which to the wrong side leaning, Indite
much metre with much pains And little or no meaning." 1864 [poem] (see letter
from John Muir to Emily Pelton 1864 Feb 27 - Mar 1, in Series 1: Correspondence
and Related Documents)

This series was created by Holt Atherton Special Collections. It
contains transcriptions of Muir writings, as well as bibliographies, notes,
correspondence and other writings on Muir by the earliest Muir scholar, William
Frederic Badè. Selected items in Series Va have been microfilmed as noted
below.

This series was added to the Muir Papers by Holt Atherton
Special Collections. It contains notes and drafts for Wolfe's writings on Muir,
as well as bibliographies, notes and correspondence. Selected items in Series
Vb have been microfilmed as noted below.